Technical Field
The invention relates to an apparatus, designed and configured for stunning live poultry animals which are intended for slaughter and are located in containers, by means of a gas mixture comprising a stunning gas, which apparatus comprises a stunning chamber having at least two stunning zones, an introduction station, arranged on the inlet side of the stunning chamber, for the or each container containing live poultry animals, and a discharge station, arranged on the outlet side of the stunning chamber, for the or each container containing stunned poultry animals, at least one transport conveyor for transporting the or each container in a transport direction T through the stunning zones from the introduction station to the discharge station, as well as means for delivering the gas mixture into the stunning zones of the stunning chamber.
The invention relates further to an arrangement for stunning live poultry animals which are intended for slaughter and are located in containers, by means of a gas mixture comprising a stunning gas, which arrangement comprises an apparatus for stunning live poultry animals which are intended for slaughter and are located in containers, by means of a gas mixture comprising a stunning gas, as well as at least one container for transporting the poultry animals through the apparatus.
The invention relates further to a method for stunning live poultry animals which are intended for slaughter and are located in containers, by means of a gas mixture comprising a stunning gas, which method comprises the steps: delivering at least one container containing live poultry animals into a stunning chamber by means of an introduction station, transporting the or each container through at least two stunning zones of the stunning chamber by means of at least one transport conveyor, and discharging the or each container containing stunned poultry animals from the stunning chamber by means of a discharge station, wherein the poultry animals located in the or each container are exposed to the gas mixture in the stunning zones of the stunning chamber.
State of the Art
Such apparatuses, arrangements and methods are used in the poultry processing industry for stunning the poultry prior to slaughter. Stunning is understood as meaning both calming (the so-called “sleep” phase) of the poultry animals to deep but reversible loss of consciousness (controlled atmosphere stunning=CAS) as well as stunning to irreversible loss of consciousness, that is to say brain death (controlled atmosphere killing=CAK). The degree of loss of consciousness depends on the concentration of the stunning gas in the gas mixture and/or on the duration of exposure to the gas mixture, for which reason stunning takes place in a plurality of phases with different and in particular increasing concentrations of the stunning gas in the gas mixture. Before the poultry animals are slaughtered, they must be brought into a state of deep loss of consciousness—according to individual guidelines relating to animal protection—to brain death. However, the period of time between loss of consciousness, in particular when brain death has occurred, and slaughter, or cutting of the throat or head, must be kept as short as possible so that the heart still has a residual function upon slaughter in order to assist with the exsanguination process after cutting of the throat or head.
The stunning of poultry animals, in particular of broilers, but also of ducks, geese, turkeys or the like, takes place in a plurality of stages in order to comply with the relevant guidelines relating to animal protection. For stunning in stages, the apparatuses have at least two stunning zones in which the poultry animals are exposed to gas mixtures having different concentrations of the stunning gas. CO2 may be mentioned purely by way of example as a stunning gas. However, other permitted stunning gases as a constituent of the gas mixture can likewise be used. According to an EU guideline 1099/2009, the poultry animals must be completely unconscious before they are exposed to a gas concentration of more than 40% stunning gas in the gas mixture. Only when the poultry animals are definitely completely unconscious are they exposed to a gas mixture that contains a proportion of more than 40% stunning gas in the gas mixture and can lead to a deep and long-lasting loss of consciousness (“stunned”) to brain death (“killed”) of the poultry animals.
A large number of apparatuses, arrangements and methods are known in which the poultry animals are transported singly through stunning chambers, for example on a transport conveyor or by means of an overhead conveyor. WO 94/15469 describes such a solution in one of the exemplary embodiments. However, such systems are limited in their capacity. Furthermore, such systems have a considerable space requirement, based on the number of poultry animals to be stunned. Corresponding disadvantages are also exhibited by systems in which individual containers each containing a number of poultry animals are transported through a stunning chamber. EP 1 405 564 A1 from the house of the applicant describes such a system in which containers containing poultry animals are transported through a stunning chamber. In this solution, after entering the stunning chamber, the containers are transported singly, that is to say container by container, downwards in the direction of an increasing concentration of the stunning gas in the gas mixture. For discharge of the containers, they are raised to the delivery level again and transported out of the stunning chamber. Varying the concentration of the stunning gas in the gas mixture, in particular on the basis of the dependence on gravity, is time-consuming and has only limited precision, which makes uniform and efficient stunning of the poultry animals located in a container more difficult. In order to improve the efficiency of such systems, solutions are known in which a plurality of containers arranged one above the other are delivered to the stunning chamber as a stack and are discharged from the stunning chamber again as a stack. WO 94/15469 describes such a system in a further exemplary embodiment.